Portal said that there are no underlying illnesses or injuries to blame, and that Froome simply “did not have the legs today”.

ADVERTISEMENT

He also recognised that Froome had come into the Giro with the strategy of building his form throughout the race and that his condition was “not as strong as it could have been”.

“But we are where we are now,” he added, “and we’ve still got two weeks to go.”

Portal said that the team had gone into the Sasso stage feeling confident, and that morale remained high. But there had come a point in the closing kilometres where Froome began to struggle, and the objective of gaining time switched to simply not losing any more.